Page 382 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

And oh yeah, she was my only lead on the Vigo situation.

I splash some water on my face and run my hand through my hair as Aisling kicks and coos.

But even though there was nothing about them that matched up physically, the feeling of familiarity sticks.

Just like the taste of those lips.

I’ve kissed plenty of women in my life, more than I could ever count. But something about those two was just so damn similar…in an uncanny way, not to my mind but to my body. When Anya kissed me, my body melded against her like it had been there before, like it knew exactly what to expect even though my mind had no fucking idea what I was doing or why.

I chalked it up to Red Dress being a loose end, one I have no confidence that I’ll ever tie up. I mean, I don’t even know who she is. Without that disguise, she could be anyone.

Invisible, just like I usually aim to be.

That makes me more than a little nervous because she can reappear as quickly as she left.

And I still don’t have any trust in the bullshit she fed me last night.

We have unfinished business, in more ways than one.

Then again, so do me and Anya.

And she knows it as well as I do. Everything in her expression confirmed it…not to mention the way her body was plastered against me for those few stolen seconds.

Jesus Christ…

Without my real work occupying me, all I have is time to think. And thinking is dangerous.

I’d much rather act.

I had one job to do while I was in New York, and all I have are loose ends and a severe case of blue balls.

“You know what, Aisling? Women are the fucking devil. I hate to be the one to break that news to you since you’re gonna be one of them, but they are. They have this witchy way of distracting men from things that are really important, and then they escape out a fucking window,” I mutter, leaning back on one hand.

I really need to let that go. Part of me believes I let her get away without talking because I’m actually losing my edge, and that pisses me off to no end.

I haven’t completely lost it. I mean, I think Miguel Rivas would agree with that.

But it’s slowly morphing from a sharp, serrated blade to more of a blunt-edged butter knife.

That’s bad news, not only for me but my family.

But it wasn’t the missed opportunity for sex that grates on me.

It’s that I let myself lose focus and without the information I need, I can’t do what Matteo expects – to protect the family.

I can’t protect anyone from an invisible threat.

I’m much more effective with tangible ones.

Aisling claps her hands and keeps splashing.

I sigh. “Good talk, kid. Just file it away for later.”

“What, exactly, are you telling my daughter to ‘file away for later’?” My brother Matteo drops next to me in the pool and picks up Aisling, holding her up and blowing raspberries onto her belly. I stifle a smirk. The girls around us have to be creaming in their bikini bottoms right now watching us with the baby.

That, or they think we’re gay.

“You’re in a bathing suit,” I say to Matteo. “What gives?”

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